butthard? What on earth does that mean? I know butthurt but butthard is a new one. I take it that it's a freudian slip of yours due to thinking about Rafa's ass?

lol..If I was thinking about an ass it sure wasn't Rafas
his body part Im most focused is his hair, to unsure mine isn't going that bad

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You're not talking about it, are you? You're joining the rambling idiots. That's not talking about it.

It is talking just a different more animal level.

Okay, I can "talk" to you. I seriously wonder why rafa played so weak. I personally think his knee is messed up again. I don't think Darcis played that well to be honest. What is your take on it?
If the knee is bad again, I think he should have skipped W and played less tournaments before already.

I didn't see the match. I was at work at the start of the match and at the dentist at the finish of it so I can only go on what others have said about it.

I must say that I didn't see it coming. I know that Darcis is a good player (but lacking in consistency) but I didn't see him win this match when I first saw the draw.

There were rumours that he was limping a bit in Roland Garros now and then as well, but that didn't seem to be too much of a problem.
However, clay is a different animal for Nadal than grass.

On clay, he's more confident, his movement on that surface comes natural to him. For grass, he needs to adapt, it takes more time and he hasn't played a good, competitive match on grass in a long time.

The first week in Wimbledon is usually more tricky for Nadal than the second week, when talking about the surface: the grass gets trampled, brown and it's less slippery. He usually is more confident in his movement by week 2.

Having said that, if he can win Roland Garros with his knee that's not 100%, it's not really all that much of an excuse here.

Darcis did what he had to do. Steve loves playing on grass (as do most Belgian players) and he did indicate that the fact that Nadal didn't play a tournament before Wimbledon would give him a window of opportunity.

In short, I don't think that his physical shape was that different from Roland Garros, but he doesn't have confidence issues on clay and he has them on grass.

I'm guessing that Vika having a bad fall on the same court, just before his match, didn't help his confidence either.

So, I don't really think that the "knee" is that much of an issue but it's more a confidence issue and not enough time to prepare for first week Wimbledon grass (slippery, balls flying low so requiring more bending of the knee,...).

I didn't see the match. I was at work at the start of the match and at the dentist at the finish of it so I can only go on what others have said about it.

I must say that I didn't see it coming. I know that Darcis is a good player (but lacking in consistency) but I didn't see him win this match.

There were rumours that he was limping a bit in Roland Garros now and then as well, but that didn't seem to be too much of a problem.
However, clay is a different animal for Nadal than grass.

On clay, he's more confident, his movement on that surface comes natural to him. For grass, he needs to adapt, it takes more time and he hasn't played a good, competitive match on grass in a long time.

The first week in Wimbledon is usually more tricky for Nadal than the second week, when talking about the surface: the grass gets trampled, brown and it's less slippery. He usually is more confident in his movement by week 2.

Having said that, if he can win Roland Garros with his knee that's not 100%, it's not really all that much of an excuse here.

Darcis did what he had to do. Steve loves playing on grass (as do most Belgian players) and he did indicate that the fact that Nadal didn't play a tournament before Wimbledon would give him a window of opportunity.

In short, I don't think that his physical shape was that different from Roland Garros, but he doesn't have confidence issues on clay and he has them on grass.

I'm guessing that Vika having a bad fall on the same court, just before his match, didn't help his confidence either.

So, I don't really think that the "knee" is that much of an issue but it's more a confidence issue and not enough time to prepare for first week Wimbledon grass (slippery, balls flying low so requiring more bending of the knee,...).

I agree with most. Although I saw the match and Nadal was atrocious. Also he did not fight with the normal fire.
When I watched Nadal play at RG I already felt like something was not quite right. He moved very well but seemed quite unhappy to me. Kinda odd.

I don't really understand him. I suspect he has a somewhat dysfunctional relationship with his body. In the way that he plays thru serious pain to win no matter what. On the other hand, I never see him limp out there not matter what the movement. So maybe you are right and it it is mainly a confidence issue.

After all, it was pretty normal a couple years back when favorites lost in early round because on a bad day upsets can happen easily when the confidence is not there. So and don't think there is a real tragedy here. I'm pretty sure Fed will soon suffer a similar shock lose at a Slam. he has been quite lucky a couple of times.

butthard? What on earth does that mean? I know butthurt but butthard is a new one. I take it that it's a freudian slip of yours due to thinking about Rafa's ass?

You're not talking about it, are you? You're joining the rambling idiots. That's not talking about it.

He was thinking about whipping Rafa's rock hard ass. He just can't help it.

And Tom, you can talk with me about tennis.
Someone tweeted that Rafa's knee had flaired up a few days before Wimbledon, so that would explain it. Good that it hold till the end of RG this time. But it was abviously too much for the knee, and he kinda knew it after RG, he didn't have any 'illusions' about doing well at Wimbledon straight away as I understood of how he talked and when he skipped Halle already.
His camp didn't say anything about the knee (obvisously not wanting to give anything away to the opponets) but he wasn't ideal already there.
So no huge surprise really, I don't know why people act so shocked. Rafiangel hiself said losses like that can happen, he just wasn't prepared enough for grass this year. Let's hope he'll be rested & ready to go later.

When a player has had his/her share of injuries and one surface is tougher on their body, it's just much harder to find confidence on it.

For example, Kim Clijsters had her first succes on clay (with a final against Davenport IIRC) but as she had more and more injuries, the surface that bothered her most was clay (it was bad on her back) so even if the doctors gave their okay to play on clay, she still didn't dare go all out. Her matches were awful. She didn't even try in the end whereas she did always do her best on hardcourts (her best surface)

Malisse has a GS title in doubles on clay (partnering with Olivier Rochus) and after so many physical problems, he'd rather avoid clay whereas he still enjoys matches on grass (his favorite surface).

As I was sitting in the dentist chair and listening to the radio to excited Belgian tennis commentators , they did also say that Nadal's movement was off.